Ellen’s most recent appearance was as the fair, firm Spelling Bee Head Judge in Fox TV’s fall 2005 episodic, Head Cases starring Chris O’Donnell and Adam Goldberg. The episode (third in a series that was cancelled after two!) entitled “Malpractice Makes Perfect,” featured Ellen’s judge going toe-to-toe with an energetic and manipulative attorney played by Goldberg. A clip from the episode is featured on Ellen Lawson's reel.
In musical theatre, Ellen’s Mrs. Lovett captivated Las Vegas audiences in the PSFX Production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. The beefy and challenging role, a perfect fit for Ellen, is one of the most demanding women’s roles in American Musical Theatre. Ten years previously, Ellen had appeared in another Sweeney Todd, as the Beggar Woman, in the Moonlight Amphitheatre (Vista, CA) presentation. (Ah yes! Killing unsuspecting saps and making them into meat pies in the California summer, outside, under a full moon...priceless!)
Born and bred a singer, Ellen’s participation in Musical Theatre was natural. From early roles like Annie in Annie Get Your Gun to the workshop version of Don Juan de Marco, directed at the Seattle Repertory Theatre by the fabulous Joe Mantello (“Take Me Out”), with book by Craig Lucas (“Blue Window”), Ellen has given zestfully of her considerable musical talent.
Other notable musical theatre roles include the beautiful and memorable Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret, and Miss Watson in Big River. At the Oregon Cabaret Theatre, Ashland, OR, Ellen originated the role of Spirulina Jones in Eat TV, The Gourmet Musical (written and directed by the theatre’s inimitable and fantastical Artistic Director, Jimmy Giancarlo). Ellen was included as the energetic and often wonderful Woman II in the national premiere of The Shakespeare Revue, the very long-running and world-wide performed brain child of those wacky and loveable Brits, Chris Luscomb and Malcolm McKee.
Ellen’s love of musical theatre was anticipated by her love of opera: She has performed with zest in two roles in the same opera (but not at the same time), as Dorabella and Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte.
In Theatre, notable roles include Ma in the Frank Gallati (Steppenwolf Theatre) adaptation of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Kathleen Hogan in the gripping two-person work, Park Your Car in Harvard Yard, Halbrech in the imaginative Titanic spinoff, Scotland Road, and as the Player and Messenger in Shakespeare’s Hamlet at the San Diego Repertory Theatre, starring none other than the brilliant and extremely polite Tony Award Winner Jefferson Mays in the title role.
In the realm of film, Ellen’s credits include Donna Summers in The Indie-Pendant (see its clip on Ellen Lawson's reel), the Cured Patient in the AFI Thesis Film Santa Croce, the title role in the Seattle Film Institute offering, The Librarian, and the role of “The Woman” in The Cauldron: Baptism of Blood, from writer/producer/ director/chief-cook-and-bottle-washer, Ted V. Mikels.
In Hollywood, Ellen is currently creating magic in the acting studios of the estimable and wonderful David LeGrant (professional actor to the profession and classmate of Marilyn Monroe in The Actor’s Studio). Previously, Ellen studied acting, also in Hollywood, with Ivana Chubyk and Brian Riese. Improv class credits are with The Groundlings.